Student Retention Question for Educators Here!

As a community college teacher we are struggling with low enrollment and declining student retention. Our State has raised our tuition every year for the last 3 years and that coupled with the new financial aid restrictions has created a huge loss of students. I'm part of a committee looking at ways to improve enrollment and retention and I thought I would see what others here have done in this regard.

We are located in a very small rural community in NC that has seen the bulk of our industry leave the community along with declining community base due to people trying to follow the jobs. That leaves us with limited options, so I'm looking for creative ideas that will help us rival the larger "big city" community colleges. Does anyone have any suggestions? I figured we have such a great diverse group here that you have many more options and more experiences than I do in this area, so you might be able to share some ideas. Full credit will be given as I have no problem admitting I didn't come up with the ideas! I'm just focused on helping us increase our numbers so we don't lose our school. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

How much of a DL presence is there in your college?

 

That was the first thing that came to my mind too. Peru State College was at one point about to be closed down. It completely revitalized itself by creating a variety of affordable DL programs. Here's an article that talks about the PSC "renaissance."

Peru_state_college | Learn everything there is to know about Peru_state_college at Reference.com

 

Between hybrid and totally DL classes it averages probably about 35% of our courses. The problem is that we are in such a rural, economically challenged area that most residents only have dial-up service if they have internet access at all. One of our college missions has been to improve the infrastructure of the communities we serve, but it is very difficult without an employer and tax base to help support it. Providers of internet service just aren't in a hurry to invest in the area, although most areas should have service in the next 12-24 months, except the very remote locations.

As an example this term I will be teaching mostly DL classes, which are averaging 24-30 students per class. Between 50-65% of those either don't have a computer at home and/or internet access. Even when service is available they can't afford it. I have students trying to take totally online classes so they don't have to pay for gas to come to the college. It has really gotten bad. I have been teaching for 13 years and this is the worst I have seen it.

I'm developing 4 new courses to be offered totally online this fall, essentially making one of my programs available totally online for the first time. I have had a great response, but I'm only one instructor and one program. Since I only have 1 adjunct under me I'm responsible for teaching all the classes in my two programs of study, so having it available online helps me too.

We know we need to add more online classes, but we don't have a strong DL dept. Do you think adding to the DL dept. is worthwhile given our economic and rural challenges?

 

If internet availability is such a problem in your area, you might want to consider offering semester-based independent study courses. Years ago a community college I attended offered a bunch of these courses. I took a few of them and really enjoyed them.

Essentially, the courses I'm referring to are independent study courses where assignments are mailed in to the instructor. In the courses I took at that community college, students were required to show up for an orientation and to take exams. The orientation was the only thing in each course that had a set date and time. The exams had a "window" of a week where students could show up at the school at their convenience and take the mid-term and finals in the test center. These courses were very popular.

I think offering courses such as these would solve the internet availability problem in your area. When high speed internet becomes more common, you can easily make the switch to the online format.

 

We frequently find ourselves talking about Clovis CC because of their prices and course availability. The whole idea of DL is that it needs to be marketed to a larger community, outside the immediate area and even outside your state. How are you marketing your product?

 

It sounds to me like you need to focus on how to save the college for the community to use rather than how to get the local community to attend the college. Does that make sense?

 

I was thinking of a DL presence to bring in students from other parts of the state and possibly other states. I wasn't necessarily thinking about DL programs for the local community. My local community college has an in-county rate ($92), in-state rate ($140) and out of state rate ($266). Even the out of state rate is fairly cheap.

If you were in the private sector I would ask these questions:
- How can you make your product better?
- How can you market your product better?
- How can you deliver your product better?
- How can you acquire customers from your competition?

 

Kismet that is a good questions. Due to a system wide rule we can't advertise outside our service area. Our state has 58 community colleges and we are not allowed to overlap into another school's area. I think that is wrong and killing smaller schools like ours, but this is a policy we can't control. I'm wondering about advertising in neighboring States? Our tuition is much lower than a lot of other states, even for out of state students. I haven't ever looked into that, but maybe we need to get more aggressive.

Right now the RIO does local newspaper articles and ads and one billboard in each county. They also participate in local community sponsored events twice a year. Aside from a website, facebook page and the above that it is. Our recruiter is supposed to visit the local high schools, but that has been spotty at best and she can't know all programs offered.

It is a really weird system, unlike any other I have worked in. AV8R, we actually did away with our independent study programs because our State auditors didn't like the inconsistency of them and the DOE changes are big on rigor which most independent study programs didn't have. I agree that DL is the way to go and trying to find creative ways to reach a new audience is critical. Thanks for all the great suggestions, you are making me think of things from a different viewpoint!

 

Clovis Community College does not advertise either, the low tuition speaks for itself. If you could pull off tuition at or near the level of Clovis CC, and just had a very clear webpage with the courses offered and the low cost, you could post a few links on Internet Discussion Boards and go that route.

In addition, has your college looked into using an Interactive TV system with outlying communities in your service area to "bring the college to them?" My former community college is located on a rural Wisconsin Indian Reservation, with many of the same challenges you have. They used Interactive TV to broadcast classes to outlying reservations to increase enrollment. Could you use Skype or a similar service to do the same?

What are the rules for dual enrolling high school students? I'm guessing that since you are in a rural area, that the local high schools may not be able to offer AP courses. Using technology, could you deliver college classes to the high schools?

Is your curriculum local? What I mean by that is that are there courses at your community college (say history, culture, etc), that could focus on the uniqueness of your area?

If you want to chat some more, PM me, I'll give you my contact info. I've been exactly where you've been; and would like to help.

Shawn

 

I am a north carolina community college student. I understand that tuition is set by the NCGA and so the individual schools don't have a lot to do with tuition rates. At a CC, students are focused on how effectively they are able to gain job skills and credentials to improve their employment prospects. Does your school offer vocational certificate programs that are made up of transferable courses that satisfy the CAA? How much marketing is done to let students know that they can earn a certificate while they work on their general ed requirements?

 

some good ideas...

I too teach at a commnity college and I think your mission is important. Shawn's idea of using TV is good as is the correspondance method. You could do a distance program with less reliance on the internet, substituting correspondance or TV for portions. It might be more work for the instructor, but both of those are promising. Shawn's point about Clovis is good too, if your tuition is low. Use the internet to get the word out beyond the borders of NC.

Another poster here named Mattbrent is also in a rural area (in Virginia if memory serves and teaches at a CC and I believe his prior school did some unique things for his district. You might send him a private message via this site.

My daughter went to UNC-Chapel Hill and boy NC is lovely! We drove around the state a lot before school started a few years back and I loved it.

Good luck!

 

Low retention, in my experience, is the result of open enrollment; which can't be changed at the CC level. I think that open enrollment removes the admission barriers which allow everyone to give college a try. As a result, many will try out a class, few will continue to a full degree (thus the creation of "mini" degree programs that we call certificates or diplomas- generally all the major, none of the gen ed). However, I don't necessarily see retention as a problem. I used to. I used to feel a lot of frustration when students changed their minds or career path. In fact, early in my career, I took it personally. I tried to convince students to stay, etc. There are flaws in the assumption that every student who considers a program should finish that program. The CC stands available to me an anyone in town. We can take classes if we want, or not. We can come and go. I think that's a good thing. Why does Harvard have 90-something % retention? Because people work too hard to get in, and if they leave they've lost out on an opportunity. This is the precise reason CCs meet a need. So, I don't see this as a problem, I just see it as a result.

Low enrollment, I believe, is a different issue. I've enjoyed working for the largest community college district in the state of Iowa since 1991. Enrollment is an interesting thing. For instance, when programs are created (which happens frequently) enrollment must follow. So, when "enrollment is down" it's possible that the enrollment issue may just be a math issue of differently distributed attendance. That's one possibility, especially if you have a small community to draw from anyway.

Secondly, distance learning IS a threat to butt-in-seat learning, it just is. There is a narrow segment that will never feel comfortable with the concept, but the generation that is traditional college age cut their teeth on an zip drive. These kids - seriously- don't often write with paper and don't often have books. Learning on a computer is intuitive. Yes, you have your traditional kids who go off to live in a dorm and have the "college experience" but what % of the community college student body is traditional? In my district it's less than 40%. Our college was the first in the state to launch the ICN (a fiber optic network linking satellite campuses with 1 live-time teacher) which we still use (why?!) and our CC also joined with 6 other CCs in the state of Iowa to pool our resources and have 1 gigantic distance learning consortium. By sharing resources, we can offer several hundred online courses, and you can register at your home college. It's just easy.

Your niche is going to be setting up relationships with local industry. You can spend a few days on google to pull examples, but our college has written programs that feed unemployed or retraining individuals into specific programs that then place them in industry. In fact, we have many of these agreements. They are common, I see them in colleges all across the country. Complete ABC program, work at XYZ company. These types of written agreements are win-win.

When the student changes, community colleges have to change. You will likely come up with several good ideas, because noticing the problem is part of the solution